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Show Democratic Leaders Fear Surplus Property Scandals By BAUKHAGE News Anoint and Commentator. WNCJ Service, 1616 F.ye Street, N.W., Washington, I). C. WASHINGTON, D. C There is an old political axiom attributed to various national figures of the past which runs something like this: Never ar-g ar-g u e about charges of the opposition party; either admit them frankly and fully, or deny them with every tissue of your oratory. Mistakes of the monopoly and, positively, to establish estab-lish a pattern which will stand as a standard of operations for the future. fu-ture. Disposal of Aluminum Plants Sets Pattern They point out the distribution of facilities for the manufacture of the light metals, especially aluminum. alumi-num. It was feared that the Aluminum Alumi-num Company of America might benefit to the exclusion of competition competi-tion or potential competition. But as a result of the co-operation of Stuart Symington, when he was Surplus Sur-plus Property administrator, there are now three lusty competitors in the field, all apparently having benefited from a fair distribution of the war enterprises made available avail-able to them on equal terms. However, other Pharaohs came to Egypt. Haste and other lncen- 1 tives are said to have destroyed the pattern. Present WAA officials deny this, but the Small Business committeemen com-mitteemen expect to prove their charges in open court. The first step which the Small Business boys would like to see taken tak-en is the appointment of an admin-i admin-i Istrator on whom they agree. They j feel the official should be a civilian j rather than an army man. The incumbent, in-cumbent, at this writing, Maj. Gen. Robert Littlejohn, is said to have expressed the desire to be relieved of WAA responsibilities, but no sue- : cessor has been indicated. The next step desired, after the hearings, is a thorough reorganization reorganiza-tion of methods and, if necessary, an overhauling of the whole set-up of j the agency. This, proponents of the Idea claim, will not only be in the good of the veteran, the business man and the national economy but in the good of the party, as well. "ins" are the Kaukhagc chief grist-of-the-m i 1 1 for the "outs" in an election year. There is a small but very earnest body of Democrats in Washington today which believes that unless certain mistakes of the administration administra-tion are freely and frankly admitted admit-ted and given a thorough airing, they will come back to haunt the Democrats Demo-crats even unto the third and fourth generation. These mistakes, they say, are the ones which have been made by the War Assets administration. There is a segment of the administration, admin-istration, on the other hand, including includ-ing some of the White House chief counsellors, who don't approve of this theory. They think that the best thing to do is to get rid of the surplus property as quickly as possible pos-sible and forget all about the whole mess. But the whole mess is not going to be forgotten. In fact, it is auite safe to predict some riotous headlines head-lines shortly after election, which will make the rather limited revelations revela-tions of the Mead committee on war contracts look like very pale and limpid prose. The headlines are likely to concern con-cern that matter which already has emitted some rather noxious odors but which when exhumed, will cause a still stronger stench in the public nostrils. This is the disposal of sur- Smart Politicos Outsmart Themselves When Senator La Follette raised a memorial to his senatorial career ! in the form of one of the most progressive pro-gressive pieces of legislation affect ing the internal affairs of the congress, con-gress, the reorganization act, something some-thing occurred which the liberal wim; of Hie Democratic party didn't realise was being done, and which has caused them no little concern ! ever since its practical application dawned upon them. What happened was not Senator La Follette's fault, but the result of that ancient evil, seniority, which the original reorganization measure would have eliminated, Congress couldn't accept that radical departure depar-ture and seniority still operates. Under Un-der this procedure a senator automatically auto-matically becomes chairman of any committee to which he is appointed if he has been a member of the senate longer than any other member mem-ber of the majority party on the committee. This system has long been recognized as an evil. Just having been around longer than anybody else is frequently less than a recommendation. Unfortunately Unfortu-nately there are too many cases where a stuffed shirt and an empty head, although they can win votes from a constituency, provide a contribution con-tribution which contributes less than nothing to the highly important impor-tant function of running a commif tee. And chairmen have become even more important now that there are fewer of them. Administration Democrats might have acted otherwise had they realized real-ized what they were doing. Because Be-cause of the seniority rule, only two northern Democrats will retain their chairmanships when the new and modernized congress organizes next January. They are Walsh of Massachusetts and Wagner of New York (provided, of course, they are re-elected and the Democrats hold their place as majority party). The rest of the chairmanships go to the South and since some southern south-ern senators persist in voting against the more liberal measures i of the administration and joining with the Republicans on others just to show their independence, it leaves the liberal Democrats in a somewhat precarious position. There is another factor which doesn't sit too well with a number of northern Democrats, either. Under the new set-up, the chairman of a committee will be more influential than ever for he now is provided with a large and efficient staff. The work of his committee will be more important than formerly because committee work won't be spread as thin as it was. Since the circle of chairmen is more exclusive and since a mem- j ber's perquisites and contacts will be greatly increased, a chairman-hip chairman-hip is a juicier plum than ever. Senator Murray plus steel equipment and facilities connected with the Geneva plant in Utah a layout that cost the government gov-ernment some 200 million dollars. It was sold to the United States Steel corporation for $47r00,000 in May of this year, over the bid of the Colorado Fuel and Iron corporation, corpora-tion, the dominant figure in manufacturing manu-facturing and distribution of steel products, west of the Rockies. Congressman Con-gressman Chenoweth of Colorado questioned this WAA disposal. The Small Business committee, under the chairmanship of Senator Murray, has made a long and careful care-ful study of the distribution of some 500 plants and facilities to date. It intends to have a report on this subject sub-ject early in November. The committee com-mittee likewise intends to air the assembled material and other testimony testi-mony in hearings thereafter with emphasis on certain industries; steel, for instance, because of its many ramifications, the chemical industry for similar reasons, and the makers of farm tools and other implements because of the crying need for such commodities and the many veteran users interested. Members of the Small Business committee believe that the pattern of the distribution so far has been haphazard and not in accordance with that provision of the law which plainly states that war material may not be sold to buyers in a manner man-ner that will encourage monopoly, but that instead will stimulate free competition. Members believe that the faults of the past must be studied stud-ied carefully in order, negatively, to prevent further encouragement of |